Pakistan Rawalpindi attack death toll rises to 34

Rawalpindi attack death toll rises to 34
By shahid Ikram

RAWALPINDI: At least 34 persons were killed and 32 were injured in a suicide attack near Shalimar Hotel in Saddar area of Rawalpindi on Monday.Several security men and children and women were killed in the attack  at 10:39 am today, when a motorbike rider blew him up outside a bank branch where people were queued to draw salaries.After the attack emergency declared at all hospitals of Rawalpindi, as the dead and injured were transferred to the District Headquarters Hospital, Heart International Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Hospital and other major medical facilities of the city.

According to hospital sources some injured were in critical condition. Eight dead bodies out of the 13 brought at District Headquarters Hospital have been dentified.Security forces cordoned off the area after the attack. Three eyewitnesses have also been transferred to some undisclosed place to get information.ll private and government schools at the Mall Road were closed after the incident.Local administration has closed schools in Rawalpindi after the suicide attack.President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has condemned the attack.Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has ordered investigation of the blast.